Statements

COMMITTEE FOR THE RELEASE OF POLITICAL PRISONERS185/3, FOURTH FLOOR, ZAKIR NAGAR, NEW DELHI-110025

Immediately conduct an independent enquiry into the circumstances leading to the death of Ranjit Murmu!

29/09/2011--Ranjit Murmu, son of Bhuta Murmu, a resident of village Sijua, Ghoraghata, PS. Lalgarh, Paschim Medinipur district of West Bengal, was arrested by WB police in September 2009. He was tending his cattle in the field when he was taken away by the police. The state forces beat him up brutally and booked him under the draconian UAPA. That the charges were all framed up need any mention.

The years in prison told on his health and police brutality under the previous regime (Budhhadeb Bhattacharyya) added to his agony and suffering. He was sent to Alipur Jail in Kolkata from Medinipur Jail and kept handcuffed in a lock-up meant for the mentally challenged.That increased his ailments. When his condition deteriorated, he was first treated in the jail hospital and then sent to the SSKM hospital in Kolkata. The medicines that were given to him only had the opposite effect. Far from curing the disease, it led to the deterioration of his physical condition. His wife recounted the conversation in those days among the medical personnel as they kept on saying fuming with hatred as to how such persons should be killed. From SSKM, he was twice shifted to the NRS hospital. But there was hardly any improvement in his condition. On 25th September 2011, he breathed his last due to kidney failure. The government out to cover up its criminal act did not even bother to inform his family.

His death is another case of murder by slow poisoning of a person who was one of the struggling people of Lalgarh. His death is the result of cold blooded brutality perpetrated by the police, jail authorities and the criminal callousness indulged in by the hospital staff. This is the first murder of a political prisoner under the newly formed Mamata Banerjee-led government.

The CRPP strongly condemns this murder of Ranjit Murmu and demands an independent enquiry into the circumstances leading to his death and exemplary punishment to those who were responsible for his death. The CRPP also conveys its deep feeling of sorrow to the members of the bereaved family.